Quality at DECH

We Care!
At Down East Community Hospital, we are committed to continuously improving the quality of care in all patient settings. We hope you will take a moment to learn more about our Quality, Patient Safety and Satisfaction programs so that you can make a good decision about your healthcare.

Quality
Quality is measured in many ways. The following categories are looked at to best determine whether or not you have received overall quality care:

Outcomes
What is the mortality and success rate at the Hospital? While it is impossible to eliminate all risks of complications and deaths, it is important for consumers to understand the doctor and hospital’s mortality and complication rates for your condition or procedure. Please never hesitate to consult with your physician about these statistics. At Down East Community Hospital, we continuously monitor outcomes through internal reporting and external reporting to national benchmarking organizations.

Additionally, the Hospital is monitored by regulating bodies such as the Center for Medicare Services (CMS) and the Maine State Department of Health and Human Services

Leapfrog Hospital Performance Initiative
The Leapfrog Group is a voluntary group that encourages transparency and easy access to healthcare information and rewards hospitals that have a proven record of high quality care.

Patient Satisfaction: What steps does the Hospital take to assure Patient Satisfaction? Down East Community Hospital continually monitors patient feedback through surveys. Additionally, the Hospital has undertaken a Service Excellence Initiative with the goal of exceeding all patient and customer expectations.

Range of Services: Does the Hospital offer a broad range of services? For a Hospital of our size Down East Community Hospital offers a wide range of specialty and sub-specialty services. See Directory of Services.

Credentials: Are the physicians credentialed? The Credentials Committee of the Medical Staff at Down East Community Hospital has a process for continually ensuring that all physicians are credentialed and meet all criteria for Medical Staff membership. This criteria includes current and active license to practice in Maine, current professional liability insurance, required continuing medical education credits as outlined by state of Maine regulations, verification of affiliation at other Hospitals (if applicable) with appropriate references, record of quality professional performance measures.

Hospital Quality Measures
Please click here to read about Down East Community Hospital’s most up-to-date quality scores as compared to state and national averages.

Patient SafetyThe 5 Million Lives Campaign
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) 5 Million Lives Campaign asks hospitals to improve care by preventing five million incidents of medical harm over a 24-month period ending December 9, 2008.

We want to hear from you!

If you have a complaint with our organization or wish to learn more about our Quality Program, please call the Quality Improvement Director at (207) 255-0452 or call the complaint hotline at (207) 255-0264.

If you feel you have an unresolved complaint, you may call the state’s Department of Health and Human Services at (207) 287-3707.